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Enacting the babushka: older Russian women ‘doing’ age, gender and class by accepting the role of a stoic carer

Shadrina, Anna; (2022) Enacting the babushka: older Russian women ‘doing’ age, gender and class by accepting the role of a stoic carer. Ageing and Society (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

This article contributes to the debates about age-based practices of distinction that produce stable notions about the subjectivities of members of social categories and the social consequences of such categorisations for the subject. In Russia, a strong expectation that grandmothers will prioritise helping their adult daughters with childcare and housework over their careers and personal lives shaped the social position of the babushka, an unpaid family carer dependent on the state and her children. When women can no longer maintain meaningful post-pension-age employment, they see the babushka figure as the dominant option to model their identities on. Drawing on 20 biographical interviews with women aged 60 and over, the article explores their tactics of performing their ‘gendered age’ in various classed ways. The babushka identity encompasses two broad strategies of self-presentation – taking control over one’s life by emphasising that it is one’s deliberate choice to live as a post-professional and post-sexual subject, and downplaying one’s own needs while contributing to the wellbeing of others. The article shows that for older Russian women who face sexism, ageism and the stigmatisation of poverty, denying their vulnerability to systemic marginalisation is a familiar way of seeking recognition and maintaining their sense of self-worth. It advances the empirical exploration of the agentic component of vulnerability by revealing how the denial of (inter)dependence is presupposed by the conditions of subject-formation.

Type: Article
Title: Enacting the babushka: older Russian women ‘doing’ age, gender and class by accepting the role of a stoic carer
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Publisher version: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ageing-and...
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Keywords: ageism, babushka, care, doing gender, gendered age, identity, older women, vulnerability
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > SSEES
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10144721
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